By your side
by Olive nerd
Summary: In 1988, Sarah finally meets her Aunt Moira and Uncle Charles. But in 1962, the Labyrinth's champion makes a pact with an old friend and steps in to change their relationships for better. But what game is Jareth playing? Can she learn to trust him, or Erik, or any mutant? Cherik and S/J
1. Chapter 1

**In this fanfic, Erik was one year older than Charles making him thirty-one and Charles thirty in 1962. In 1988, they're fifty-seven and fifty-six. Moira is Charles' age in this fanfic. Sarah is seventeen in 1988 because she was fifteen when she ran into the labyrinth two years before. This is an AU fanfic, but the events happen after _X-Men First Class_, which I do not own. I also do not own _The Labyrinth_. Reviews are always appreciated!**

_Prologue: Look who stopped by_

"I don't see why you should be the damsel in distress." Toby had been repeating the absurd game for hours, and her lizard green dragon outfit was starting to bruise her ivory skin. Although she respected her step-brother, Sarah often wondered where his bursts of spontaneity originated from. Certainly not from Karen...

"Ow!" She stubbed both of her big toes as she tripped over a huge book titled _Mutant and Proud, A deeper look at the children of the atom, By M. MacTaggart_. Judging by its thickness, Sarah would've casually placed it on the dresser and lack the curiosity to explore its pages. But, once again, something was amidst. Something was almost calling for her, extending outstretched, invisible hands and signs to her and telling her the book was not some book her father or her stepmother, Karen, found.

"Sarah?" Her little redheaded brother crawled beside her and flopped beside her. As a baby, he was blonde, and everybody believed he would remain blonde or grow darker hair in due time. But by the time he was four, his tuff of blonde hair grew redder and thicker and only fueled his strange liking to lighting matches when Sarah was babysitting him.

"Come on! Come! Reading is for wimps!"

The brunette wrinkled her nose at him. She wasn't much of a bookworm herself, but she still wanted Toby to learn how to deal with having to at least like reading to some degree. "How can you talk without words, Toby?" Her emerald eyes scrutinized the pages as she continued to speak. "How are you able to know what I'm saying?"

His eyes narrowed to slits, and his face reddened. Toby was the toddler who either bawled or threw a tantrum when he was greatly confused or scared. "What do you mean?"

Sarah shook her head at him, finding her attempts hopeless, and invited him to sit in her lap. "One day," she mused as he nested on top of her legs. "You'll perform wonders, help many people, but you have to start small."

She returned to her book, flipping pages until she found two images of a boy who looked no older than fifteen and had chestnut hair, blue eyes, and an inquisitive look on his face and a girl with electric blue skin, red hair, and yellow eyes. "_**My husband**_," Sarah read aloud, "_**was a telepath who, with his sister, Raven Darkholme, were underrated mutants with the potential to crack down several beneficial opportunities that were fixed amongst mutants. Though this is only the opinion of a human who was labeled 'lovesick' by my employers, my developing understanding for both my husband and his colleagues has only flourished with every mission entrusted to us**_."

Toby clapped his hands excitedly. "This is a good story! Read! Read!"

"It's hardly anything nonfictional, isn't it?" Sarah turned back to the page with the publication date, and it read '1964.' Then, she slowly returned to the page she skimmed to. "Dad wouldn't find this even if he wanted to, and we both know Karen stays away from anything pertaining to the supernatural."

"Otherwise known as no fun," quoted Toby. In return, he earned a shove and a scowl.

"I said that when I was young and foolish. Don't repeat that to anybody, understand?" He nodded yes, and she kissed his forehead. "Now where was I... Oh, right!

_**The Hellfire Club has been an opposing force to humans, but they never have had any contact with any other mutants again. They are not entirely on the bad side, but after John F. Kennedy was assassinated last year, my husband and I direct our claims to their inexcusable acts against the humans. We can promise you that we will stop at nothing to help both humans and mutants. Additionally, we express deep concern for Erik Lehnsherr**_."

"Karen would hate this book so much..."

"Sarah!" Speak of the devil... There are two agents here on the front porch!"

Brushing some locks of her brunette hair off of her face, Sarah casually dipped her head from the top of the staircase in the hallway, where their game of princesses and dragons would need to resume later.

"Why would that be?"

Karen pursed her lips at both her and the two strangers in the doorway. "Please just change out of that ridiculous costume and come down, young lady."

Whenever Karen used the term 'young lady,' it meant that she was still going to act cold and unforgiving. Earlier after her father, Robert, left to run some errands, Karen wanted to speak with Sarah. Alas, playtime was exhausting for the teenager, much less enduring another melodramatic story from her stepmother.

"Who," Toby asked beneath the layers of Karen's furry coats he considered "ladylike and princess-like." Sarah shook her head at him and put a finger to her lips. He quietly obliged but still remained at the top of the staircase.

As Sarah came down, the two people, one man and one woman, entered calmly. The woman had chocolate brown hair and warm brown eyes, while the handicapped man had lighter brown hair and the deepest blue eyes. To the commonly placed teen, they looked like an astute, no fun business couple, presumably stationed by their careers more so than each other. But with one perceiving glance, Sarah knew more than she could learn to obtain.

She was suddenly crouching on the floor, crying softly and mumbling. Karen was suddenly panicky and jerked away from the couple to pick up the telephone in the kitchen.

"I wouldn't alert anyone," the woman warned, gently taking the receiver from the blonde woman. "We have a personal agenda with your stepdaughter to settle with. Understand this, or we will have to use backup."

Karen looked at Sarah, then the woman, and then the man now wheeling to Sarah. "What is it you want from her? And who do you two think you are, anyway? Intruding like this is preposterous and you two-"

The man rested some of his fingers onto the side of his head, and Karen was instantly silenced. "Please, Mrs. Williams. We're not here to harm her. No matter how 'preposterous' our 'intrusion' may seem, our intentions can be categorized as classified for your sake, but we'll allow her to provide details when our visit is over." His gaze softened as it reached Sarah, who he realized didn't recognize him at all. "She's grown far too fast. We last saw her when she was barely a toddler."

"How do you know her?" Karen's opinion of them shifted when she clearly saw they meant no harm to anyone. "Would you like something to drink?"

The woman then shook Karen's right hand with a plausible smile. "It would be most appreciated if we could stay for some tea. Moira MacTaggart, ma'am. And this is my husband, Charles Xavier, your stepdaughter's mother's older brother."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Over a cup of tea

She had her mother's imagination. Charles instantly felt the young girl's mind expanding in her stride. He swore to never indulge into others' minds unless it was crucial to missions he had with his wife. Yet, the temptation was gnawing at his skull. What more was held behind vivid green eyes and straight hair?

"You hold every recessive gene of your mother," Charles whispered, while brushing a stray strand of Sarah's hair out of her face. She flinched as he did so, but Toby only clenched his fists.

"You stay away from sissy, Mister!"

Moira clapped her hands and crouched to the toddler's eye level. "And who's this bundle of joy?"

Karen hugged her son from behind, pulling him apart from the three relatives. "My son, Toby. He's four right now."

"Four and a quarter," Sarah mumbled, grabbing a chocolate chip cookie from the cookie jar and sipping on her cup of green tea Karen poured for her. Then, the cup was dropped, and it shattered into a thousand pieces and littered the kitchen counter.

"Sarah!" Karen groaned and slowly approached Sarah, resisting the urge to ask her aunt and uncle to leave. "What has made you so fidgety?"

Tears wetted Sarah's crimsoning cheeks. "My head," she moaned, "hears noises, chatter...him..." Before she could scream, Charles placed two fingers on her forehead, and Sarah fell asleep.

"She's experiencing late signs of empathy," Charles informed Moira. He then shifted his eyes to Karen. "We'd like a word alone with her if you do not mind, Mrs. Williams."

"Call me Karen." Although the mother knew it would be wise not to be too assertive, especially in front of Toby, but she was still weary around them. "You may be relatives, but I just can't-" Charles tapped the side of his head. "Come, Toby. Show me your teddy bear collection."

The scuffing little boy stuffed his face with candies and cookies."I ain't got one!" After a few looks from his mother, Toby reluctantly followed Karen upstairs to his room, away from his older stepsister.

Sarah's uncle sent Moira a condescending grin. "I told you he'd develop second-hand abilities. He had the senses of a true mutant."

Her aunt, meanwhile, only groaned and rested her elbows on the counter. "He's just a boy! And that's an absurd theory!"

"Not if you have the little things under a microscope." Shaking his head, Charles grinned as Moira frowned. There was no use in arguing with your traveling companion. So, he decided to awaken their niece. "Wake now, Sarah. There's much we have to tell you."

As soon as she was up, Sarah leapt out of their reach and stood up shakily. "You-you were speaking to me fr-from my head!"

"Yes. Amazing, isn't it? And your mother, Linda Williams, was the most emotional actress, all derived from empathy." He swiveled over to her, tilting his chin up. "You see, Sarah, it may be difficult for you to fathom this, but since you walked down that staircase, I felt the role you play in this family, its burden, and your exquisite abilities."

Her mother often showered her with possibilities, as a child up until fifteen. But after abandoning her fantasies, they were no more than that. She no longer partook in a world imagined or anything supernatural. Therefore, it was hard to fathom her supposed uncle and aunt's explanations. "If this is some kind of trick-"

"You are *Sarah Jade Williams born on *June 13, 1970. Your favorite color is red. Your favorite animals are your pet dog, Merlin, foxes, and *orangutans. Linda *Crystal Xavier left your father, *Robert Jonathan Williams, for Jeremy *Samuel Stride on your sixth birthday. Your brother, Tobias *Angelo Williams was born on *November 21, 1985. His mother is *Karen Irene Green. You had an obsession with hugging rocks at six years old-"

"I get it!" Half of the information was personal and reserved for family. "But, if you were my mother's brother-"

"Where was I?" He gave her a genuine, apologetic look, one that her mother often wore when she couldn't keep Sarah. "Oh, Sarah, things got in the way."

Moira's heels began to tap. " Charles."

Her uncle swerved back to his wife, genuine look replaced with agitation. "What is it now?"

Forces she couldn't name we're tugging at her gut, though they weren't hurtful like the last forces earlier inside of her head. "You're both hiding something."

She's bound to know." Red fingernails tapped the kitchen table, and heels preceded them in rhythm.

"Know what, Sarah wondered out loud. "Tell me! Please, I really miss Mom."

Moira stopped tapping and smiled compassionately. "Sweetie, we know that, but Linda she..." Moira looked over to her husband, and he resumed the conversation.

"After Linda started dating Jeremy... you know Jeremy, right?" Sarah nodded. "Well, I'll start from the top. I met our adoptive sister, Raven, the year before Linda was born. Linda was born when I was thirteen. I began an unhealthy fascination with mutations with Raven at Oxford University, while she pursued acting."

Moira slinked her right hand into Charles' left hand, and the couple shared a mutual, light embrace. "Then we met. We were also acquainted with other mutants just like her."

"But she hid and succeeded by meeting Jeremy."

Sarah abruptly sat back down, ignoring the feeling that she could trust them. She knew her mother more than anyone, even Jeremy, at least that was what she believed. Now that her older brother and his wife were cramming new inout into her mind, the overload was still doubtful. "We're not different from anybody else," Sarah argued. "Mom trusts me! She would've said something about you two!"

"Have you experienced certain phenomenons with your brother?"

'Only the labyrinth,' Sarah thought. She'd never return to that dreadful place, though. Even with her stepbrother safe, Sarah still was feeling pensive and guilty over the matters before, and what did Goblin Kings have to do with her family anyway?

"Charles!" Sarah's aunt put her hand on her husband's shoulder.

"Moira!" He looked just as determined as her, and he won the battle for now. She rolled her eyes and clutched her head.

"I need a minute!" Before she left, Moira bent closer to Charles and whispered, "try not to pry into others' minds."

As her heels went click-click and sped off in the hall leading back to the living room, Sarah instinctively leaned forward to Charles and purse her cherry red lips. The sense of longing wouldn't leave her alone, and she could almost see it radiate from her uncle.

"You miss something."

Charles smiled melancholically at her. "I miss lots of things, darling. It's sad, really. I just can't figure you out yet. Just like Linda, you have a way of blocking me out."

As he sipped his cup of green tea and winced, Sarah scooted closer to him until she was right by him. "Why didn't you ever attend birthdays, write to us, or anything?"

He promptly ignored her query and stared at her face. "You only have my eyebrows..." Seeing those eyebrows furrow made him return back to their exchange. "After I was a professor, I discovered a way to make young and old mutants feel wholly at home and accepted... What I am about to show you is something you mustn't share with anyone, even your brother. We didn't come here to scare you. We want to explore what you have explored and learn from what wisdom you have to share. I haven't been by you because I needed to protect you."

His wife reentered the kitchen and stood by Charles. "Trust us when we say any other time would have been an inconvenience. Now is the time to share, Sarah. We'll both love you regardless."

It was clear that the matter was not for humor. Thinking quick, Sarah decided an eye for eye was the simplest way to raise a simple agreement. "Alright." She offered a friendly smile. "I'll let you in if you do the same." They nodded, and Sarah closed her eyes and tried to reach Charles in some way. "I eyes like yours, but much more grey and.. Hard."

Charles remained silent and stiff, so Moira took the agreement to another level. "How about this: Charles will tell you about our background story if you share with us yours."

Mutant and Proud... The book she read not too long ago was now becoming s projection, a clue to these two strangers and what they had to share. It was time to try denial, since the matter was still partially ridiculous to her still. "I'm sorry, but I still don't believe you're mutants."

"Oh, I'm not a mutant," Moira confessed. "Just the wife of a very powerful one."

Sarah almost glared at them, feeling like a little kid frustrated over a one-thousand piece puzzle. "Then how do you two know each other?"

"Tell her, Moira."

"Look, Charles-"

"We discussed this."

"You know what?" Moira scooped up her cup of green tea and grabbed her creamy beige purse. "I have been by your side during this whole shebang for twenty-six years. Maybe you should teach Sarah about the CIA's hatred for women!"

They have not been as spiteful Moira-"

She rose her hands up, indicting her want for silence. "I've had enough of this. You complained the full ride over here about your students. If you don't like it, don't sign up!" With that, Moira zipped her purse open and fished for her car keys. "I'll be in the car. We need to leave to meet your sister at that motel with our reservations soon anyway."

As she left again, Charles surprised Sarah by covering his mouth and suppressing giggles."She hasn't seen her family for years, and the CIA does underestimate women. But they're better now, Moira- Moira?"

"She misses something, too. I- I don't know how I know, but... I'm so sorry-" She suddenly saw nothing but her childhood music box and her flamboyant mother and Jeremy offering to dance with her. Then, her vision zoomed back to real life, in front of Charles, who was smiling softly to himself.

"What was that?"

"Your fifteenth birthday. Linda and Jeremy really did love each other. What I have just done is one of the abilities I have as a telepath, Sarah. With enough training, you may have the capability of keeping similar powers intact and vivid."

Two other people appeared in Sarah's mind."Raven...The man with the grey eyes... Who is he? A friend of my mom's?"

Those two are mutants as well," Charles clarified. "Both were once just as important to me as your aunt." He continued to sip some more green tea.

There was one more question Sarah had left, but it wouldn't reach her lips, and Charles was almost ready to leave.

He slipped a piece of paper under her arm. "When you have compromised with your parents, give us a call any time you like. Visit us if you have to. We'll be in town until the day after tomorrow." He pecked her cheek and rolled closer to her, holding his arms out. "May I?"

She nodded, and after an awkward hug was shared, he wheeled himself to where Moira went.

"Uncle Charley? I can call you that, right?"

Charles stopped midway and grinned. "Of course, darling."

One other insignificant question came to her mind before the first. "What was that man to you?"

She looked so innocent and unencumbered, and yet he knew some driving force intended for her to remain strong and upright, a chance of fate, it seemed. If only he could know what had troubled her to mature so quickly! Charles Xavier was a man who took every and any person's memories and dispositions as symbols to their character, clues to finding the puzzle before even solving it, a terrible habit he developed once he fully understood and undertook in telepathy. It became a second nature, solving the problems of others with his abilities.

Her question wasn't forgotten, and its significance probably never will be.

"He was my best friend, Sarah."

Nevertheless, Charles Xavier knew there was a foe hurting his niece. But this time, this foe was undeserving of serenity.


End file.
